Balkan Nations Need to Support Startups

HVAR, CROATIA—The wave of startup excitement sweeping Europe has hit the Balkans. However, while the region has had some successes, unless big problems in its nascent startup culture are resolved, it is in danger of missing out.

Ivo Špigel, co-founder of ZIP—a Croatian program to support young entrepreneurs—contrasted the situation in the Balkans with that of the Baltics. "When Estonia became an independent state it threw off...